100 percent of Severance teacher’s fifth-grade students do well on TCAP reading tests

Evan Netzer, fifth-grade teacher at Range View Elementary School in Severance, holds a photo of last year's class. All 24 of his students scored proficient and advanced in reading on the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program tests last spring.

Netzer, 30, a fifth-grade teacher at Range View Elementary School in Severance, learned two days before the first day of school that 100 percent of his 24 fifth-graders scored proficient and advanced on their Transitional Colorado Assessment Program reading tests last spring.

"It's a staff full of awesome people, and last year I just happened to have the group of kids that did a really great job. They all just tried really hard," Netzer said.

Netzer, who started his fifth year of teaching at Range View on Thursday when students reported for the first day of school, made sure to give credit to other teachers and staff members.

"I don't think I'm naive enough to believe that it was all me. I think there are some amazing teachers," Netzer said. "The fourth-grade teachers are amazing and they did a great job with them, and the third-grader teachers and the second-grade teachers. I really think that it was a team effort. I think the specialists are amazing here, and they were the ones that did a great job with helping those low kids really bring their grades up."

According to Re-4 district assessment coordinator Amy Heinsma, having an entire class score proficient and advanced on a particular subject has not happened since the district started tracking classroom level data three years ago.

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"I don't recall seeing it in the last five years since I've been here," Heinsma said. "If kids are reading a lot and know that reading is important, they're going to be successful. We always want to celebrate successes of teachers and make sure they know they're doing a great job."

Netzer, who taught third grade for two years at Mountain View Elementary School before transferring to Range View, said he had no magic potion for his reading students.

"We read a lot. It sounds elementary, but I have my kids reading a ton," Netzer said. "There is an author that I've read, his name is Mike Schmoker, and he talks about that if you want kids to be good readers you have them reading a lot. If you want to be a good writer, you write a lot. It seems really basic, but I guess that's what I was trying to do last year. I really spent a lot of time with my kids having them reading a lot of books, discussing it in small groups and just giving them a lot of time to read that was uninterrupted."

Range View's fifth-graders scored 86 percent proficient and advanced to lead the district's fifth-graders in reading.

"There are just amazing teachers out here. The district has amazing teachers, and this school is phenomenal," Netzer said.